Upon returning home to test it I found that everything worked perfectly except ROB wouldn’t move up or down. I was able to fix ROB so I thought I would share some knowledge on what I did to fix the problem.

How to fix ROB

It’s much easier to fix him if you turn him upside down. This is due to the fact that ROB is filled with gears and if he’s upside down the gears will not fall out when you remove the screws that hold ROB’s torso together.

NES ROB Repair - ROB Turned Upside Down

Once the ROB’s torso screws are out the inside will look like this:

NES ROB Inside View

When ROB can’t move up or down it’s almost always do the the front gear/axle assembly. Back in the day Nintendo glued a part of it together and over time the glue can dry out and when that happens the gears won’t turn on the axle. Below is a picture of the gear I’m talking about:

NES ROB Inside Problems

All you need to do is remove of ROB’s as well as the gears that move the arms. Next you can remove the gear/axle assembly and put super glue on the part listed in the previous pic.

Reassembly

It’s much easier if you prop up ROB’s arms when you put him back together. You need to make sure everything lines up otherwise you will have to take it apart again because it will not work unless it’s lined up perfectly.

The outcome

View of the inside of a regular 5 screw NES gameView of inside a 5 screw NES Game containing a Famicom Converter

Some of the early released NES games from 1985 have a hidden treasure inside: Famicom to NES converters/adapters.

These converters will allow you play Japanese Famicom games on your NES Top Loader or NES Toaster.

All the early NES games are of the 5 screw case design so it’s easy to open them with a standard flat blade screw driver. This is a great reason to check your games to see if you have a surprise inside. If the NES game has a converter inside it’s going to weigh more than a regular NES game so you may be able to tell without even having to open it.

I’ve checked several of my games and was lucky to find out that my copies of Gyromite and Pinball both contain Famicom to NES converters.

The games you are most likely to find the Famicom converters in are in no:
(Note: this is from my own personal experience so use at your own discretion)

Super Mario Bros (SMB) was released in 1985 by Nintendo for the NES. It’s easily one of the most recognizable video games ever and the most popular game ever produced for the NES. SMB was the best selling video game for more than 20 years selling over 40 million copies. Super Mario Bros popularity is what led to Mario being a household name and on products from food to underwear. It also resurrected the video game industry after the great video game crash of 1983.

SMB was the sequel to the arcade classic Mario Brothers. The gameplay is similar to Mario Brothers but there are differences ie: in SMB you can jump on a turtle to kill it, in Mario Bros you had to jump to hit the turtle from underneath and then run up to it and kick it.
The story goes that the evil Bowser had kidnapped Princess Toadstool. You can play as either Mario or Luigi on your quest to find out what castle Bowser has Princess Toadstool hidden in. There are 8 worlds in the game. Each world consists of 3 levels and 1 castle level. To complete a world you must defeat all 4 levels.

SMB was the first time you could get a giant mushroom, a fireflower to throw fireballs or the famous invincibility star. These became Nintendo staples would be forever understood by gamers and appear in countless Nintendo games to this day.

SMB was available in several different cartridges for the NES. You could get SMB by itself, in a combo cart with Duck Hunt, and with Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet in another combo cart. There are also 5 screw cart and 3 screw cart variations available.

There were some famous glitches in SMB. The infamous minus world glitch is one that comes to mind. Some of the other glitches involved mushrooms falling through the screen and infinite 1ups that can lock up the game.

SMB is one of the cheapest to purchase NES games so there’s no excuse if you don’t own a copy. It’s a video game masterpiece that will always be remembered as one of the greatest games ever.

This article will include information on both the original NES, sometimes referred to as the “Toaster NES” and the NES 2 usually referred to as the “Top Loader”.

Nintendo NES Control Deck BoxNintendo NES Action Set in Box

The toaster came out in 1985 in the US. It was test marketed around the U.S. in New York and California.

Nintendo NES Top Loader BoxNintendo NES Top Loader and ControllersNintendo NES Top Loader in open box

The Top loader came out in 1993. It does have several differences from the original NES:

Only RF output

No Power LED

New “Dog Bone” style controllers

The Top Loader is more rare but the funny thing is the Toaster gives a better video signal due to it having composite out (instead of RF Out only like the Top Loader has). You can mod the Top Loader to have composite out like the Toaster so that’s something to think about.